


make believe, it's hyper real

by mildlydiscouraging



Series: phan week 2015 [3]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: 2009, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Phan Week 2015, Prompt Fill, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-02 04:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5234177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlydiscouraging/pseuds/mildlydiscouraging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time they Skype, Dan is just ever so slightly disappointed.<br/>But that sounds bad, so let's start from the beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	make believe, it's hyper real

**Author's Note:**

> phan week day three! today is soulmates, but also more 2009 because its me
> 
> (title from [a lorde song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pstVCGyaUBM) also because its me)

The first time they Skype, Dan is just ever so slightly disappointed.

But that sounds bad, so let's start from the beginning.

<+>

The summer of 2009 was eventful one, what with everyone over the age of twelve suddenly finding words printed on their skin in shades of red. Not everyone got theirs all at once, or had any discernible cause, but it happened nonetheless.

The first few reported were a group of well off twenty-somethings vacationing in the Mediterranean. At first they'd assumed they were tattoos, mistakes made that had made sense at the time but was now lost in a haze of alcoholic amnesia. They were willing to overlook the fact that the words lay flat on their skin like they'd always been there and no one was sore the way a tattoo would make them.

But then more and more of them started appearing on everyone past their thirteenth birthday. Random phrases that no one quite knew what to make of just showed up one day while you were asleep or at work or in the middle of a shower, on arms and shoulder and ribs and legs. And people began drawing connections between the words and the people around them.

Word started going around that a girl in New Zealand had walked into a coffee shop and immediately run into another girl delivering drinks. Written across the waitress's left shoulder were the words, "It's fine, I'm just a little wet," to accompany the dripping girl's, "God, I am so sorry." The recognized the match immediately and ended up married four days later, starting the rumour that the words were the first thing your soulmate would say to you.

Of course, not everyone believed that. Some took it as words of wisdom from a higher power (obviously not the ones who didn't have something mundane like, "shit, sorry" or "excuse me..." while others just shrugged them off as skin discolorations and went along with their lives, business as usual. But the idea of soulmates slowly started taking hold as the days progressed and more and more marks appeared and more and more marks matched and the myth grew.

<+>

For one Dan Howell, it's the inside of his wrist and the week after he graduates, just as he's slipping into the endless monotony of months without classes to fill time. It says, "you're real," in even, slightly loopy lettering, and although he doesn't know what the context could possibly be, it's more comforting that he would like to admit.

And a month or so later, when he still didn't know, he kind of hoped it was the one and only Phil Lester. But then the first reply was wrong, the first text wasn't it, the first Skype was so close, but still not right, and eventually Dan lost hope. In Phil being his soulmate, at first, but eventually the idea as a whole, because if Phil Lester _wasn't_ his soulmate, how could anyone else be?

"What's your countdown at now?"

Dan blinks. "What countdown?"

Even the low quality webcam couldn't contain Phil's eyeroll.

"I know you've been counting down the days until we meet." Phil pulls his laptop closer and the screen goes all floppy.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I have been too," Phil admits, and he winks, which is super awkward to watch but Dan can't help but feel a little flustered. Of course, because it's Phil, he's aware of how awkward it is, but that's kind of endearing too, and Dan can only sigh and accept his fate as being totally smitten of this weird boy from the internet.

"Two days and seventeen hours?"

Phil smiles and the inside of Dan's wrist itches.

<+>

The sole of Dan's right shoe is coming loose at the heel. It's a welcome distraction.

The sole of Dan's right shoe is coming loose at the heel and it catches on the corner of his chair and the edge of the platform and he can't stop thinking about it as he comes to a stop right in front of Phil.

The sole of Dan's right shoe is coming loose at the heel and Phil is turning around and he's looking Phil right in the eyes and smiling wider than Dan's seen him do before and he opens his mouth and-

"You're real."

-and Dan's heart stops and falls through that crack where his shoes coming loose and the hopes he'd kept in the tiny corner of his heart fall out with them. They come out the crack in his heel and pool around his ankles, or rather his toes, as he's thrown his arms around Phil's neck and basically heaved all his weight on him.

Phil accepts it easily enough and hugs him back even as he's asking around a laugh, "What?"

"It's you, I mean, it's nothing, it's just... It's you."

And of _course_ that's when Phil understands, understands it like the familiar ache in his shoulder every time Dan answered his calls. So when Dan starts laughing in a way that probably sounds like he's lost it to everyone else, Phil understands that too.

Later they'll talk about how worried they both were and how stupid the whole soulmates thing is not taking other forms of communication into account, before they get caught up in the concept of soulmates again and give up for a while.

But for now it's enough to hold each other and know it wasn't too much, it was always just enough.

**Author's Note:**

> i want more interesting and realistic (so to speak) soulmate au's, so i figured i'd write one myself
> 
> as always:  
> tumblr @[dweebhowell](http://dweebhowell.tumblr.com)


End file.
